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US Tanks Enter Najaf And Karbala!!
KERBALA, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. tanks rolled into the Iraqi Shi'ite holy city of Kerbala on Thursday and took up positions close to the main shrines after destroying the offices of a radical cleric with heavy machinegun fire, witnesses said.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=5063084
NAJAF, Iraq : US forces moved in to secure the governor's office, already occupied by Iraqi police, in a major military operation inside the holy city of Najaf.
Tanks moved to within 500 metres (yards) of the office in an area of the city they had not entered since the start of a month-long insurgency by followers of firebrand Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr, according to an AFP correspondent on Thursday.
Iraqi police have been back at the building since it was held briefly by Sadr's Mehdi Army in April, but the moves were part of a strategy the military announced to sideline the cleric.
Policeman Hussein Razak told AFP the US forces had secured the area around the governor's office.
Explosions and heavy gunfire were heard as US tanks, armoured vehicles and troops surrounded the city and moved to within a kilometre (less than a mile) of Shiite holy sites, an AFP correspondent said.
"All roads between Najaf, Kufa and Karbala have been cut off," said police Lieutenant Wissam Jasem in Najaf, 130 kilometres (80 miles) south of Baghdad.
Three armed Humvees and two tanks were spotted at a roundabout about five kilometres (three miles) northwest of the city before the start of the operation.
Another group of tanks and up to 30 soldiers were seen further from the city blocking the main road between Najaf and another flashpoint city, Karbala.
Clashes also broke out at Kufa, some 10 kilometres (six miles) from Najaf, after US overseer Paul Bremer announced a new provincial governor for the area.
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/83558/1/.html
NAJAF, Iraq : US forces moved in to secure the governor's office, already occupied by Iraqi police, in a major military operation inside the holy city of Najaf.
Tanks moved to within 500 metres (yards) of the office in an area of the city they had not entered since the start of a month-long insurgency by followers of firebrand Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr, according to an AFP correspondent on Thursday.
Iraqi police have been back at the building since it was held briefly by Sadr's Mehdi Army in April, but the moves were part of a strategy the military announced to sideline the cleric.
Policeman Hussein Razak told AFP the US forces had secured the area around the governor's office.
Explosions and heavy gunfire were heard as US tanks, armoured vehicles and troops surrounded the city and moved to within a kilometre (less than a mile) of Shiite holy sites, an AFP correspondent said.
"All roads between Najaf, Kufa and Karbala have been cut off," said police Lieutenant Wissam Jasem in Najaf, 130 kilometres (80 miles) south of Baghdad.
Three armed Humvees and two tanks were spotted at a roundabout about five kilometres (three miles) northwest of the city before the start of the operation.
Another group of tanks and up to 30 soldiers were seen further from the city blocking the main road between Najaf and another flashpoint city, Karbala.
Clashes also broke out at Kufa, some 10 kilometres (six miles) from Najaf, after US overseer Paul Bremer announced a new provincial governor for the area.
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/83558/1/.html
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Politics: 6 May 2004, Thursday.
US tanks entered the Shiite holy city of Karbala and took up positions close to the main shrines after destroying the offices of a radical cleric with heavy machinegun fire, media reported.
About eight heavy armored vehicles and six lighter vehicles were positioned in the city center, about 500 meters from the Imam Hussein and Imam Abbas shrines.
Bulgarian troops have been deployed in the restive southern city of Karbala as part of a 9,000-strong Polish-led multinational contingent.
http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=34359
US tanks entered the Shiite holy city of Karbala and took up positions close to the main shrines after destroying the offices of a radical cleric with heavy machinegun fire, media reported.
About eight heavy armored vehicles and six lighter vehicles were positioned in the city center, about 500 meters from the Imam Hussein and Imam Abbas shrines.
Bulgarian troops have been deployed in the restive southern city of Karbala as part of a 9,000-strong Polish-led multinational contingent.
http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=34359
NAJAF, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. troops attacked Shi'ite militia forces around the Iraqi holy city of Najaf on Thursday, seizing the local governor's offices and killing 41 fighters, a senior official in the U.S. occupation authority told Reuters.
In what seemed a broad move against insurgents across southern Iraq, U.S. tanks moved unopposed into the center of the nearby holy city of Kerbala, destroying offices used by the Mehdi Army militia of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
Reuters correspondents in Najaf saw and heard fierce battles in and around Najaf and the nearby town of Kufa. One saw U.S. tanks at the governor's building on Najaf's main street, several kilometers (miles) from Shi'ite Islam's holiest shrines.
It was the boldest action yet against an insurgency launched a month ago by Sadr. Aged about 30 and with a following among mainly young Shi'ites, the cleric demanded Americans leave Iraq.
But rival Shi'ite leaders have been increasingly critical of his stationing of thousands of fighters in the sacred city. He is wanted over the murder of another cleric in Najaf last year.
In Kerbala, residents saw U.S. tanks blast away Sadr's offices with heavy machinegun fire before taking up positions in the center, about 500 meters (yards) from the main shrines. Italian forces said they fought Mehdi Army fighters south of Nassiriya, another Shi'ite town.
Thousands of U.S.-led troops have been encircling Najaf and have fought Sadr's men elsewhere in recent days in the south, home to the majority Shi'ite population that was oppressed by Saddam Hussein but has grown impatient with U.S. occupation.
On Thursday, Paul Bremer, the U.S. administrator of Iraq, appointed a new governor for Najaf and denounced Sadr.
Plumes of smoke rose from one area as U.S. helicopters swooped low overhead in Najaf. U.S. forces have said they will refrain from entering shrines or offending religious sentiment.
"We have resecured the governor's building and we intend to have the governor reoccupy it to have the coalition retake control of the city," the U.S. official said.
Correspondents said the Mehdi Army militia appeared to be counter attacking the governor's building. Lieutenant Colonel Pat White, a U.S. officer at the scene, told CNN: "We are getting contact from all sides and we are dealing with it now."
"I would liken it to a hornets' nest."
U.S. forces advanced to the east of Najaf across the Euphrates river near Kufa, drawing out fighters and killing 41 of them, the U.S. official said. White said his battalion killed about 20 fighters after they moved out of a mosque at Kufa and fired rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and rifles.
SUICIDE BOMB
Earlier, in Baghdad, a suicide car bomber killed five Iraqis and a U.S. soldier outside the U.S. headquarters in an attack apparently claimed by a Muslim militant with ties to al Qaeda.
U.S. officials said the checkpoint bombing bore the hallmarks of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, an ally of Osama bin Laden who they believe has been operating in Iraq. A claim issued on a Web site purported to come from an organization he leads.
Another group, the hitherto unheard-of Islamic Rage Squadrons, released a video on Arab television showing what it said was a blindfolded American civilian held hostage in Iraq.
Thursday's bomb wounded 23 Iraqis, including three policemen, and two U.S. soldiers at an entrance to the sprawling Green Zone, once Saddam Hussein's main palace compound.
The massive blast rocked central Baghdad 12 hours after President Bush appealed on Arab television for Iraqis to show faith in U.S. democracy and good intentions following revelations of murder and abuse of Iraqi prisoners by Americans.
First reported in January, the scandal blew up last week when photographs were published of soldiers, including a woman, tormenting naked Iraqis. The Washington Post published similar pictures on Thursday. Bush made clear, through aides, that he is unhappy with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld over the affair.
Violence has blighted Iraq since U.S. forces toppled Saddam a year ago, embroiling troops in increasingly bloody guerrilla war and complicating Washington's efforts to install a friendly and stable Iraqi government by a self-imposed June 30 deadline.
U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi arrived in the capital for talks on forming an interim Iraqi government in time for the handover.
The prisoner abuse scandal risks further hampering efforts to foster whatever Iraqi goodwill remains from the ousting of Saddam. Coupled with a rising U.S. death toll, the scandal is not helping Bush explain to Americans the benefits of invading Iraq as he courts votes for re-election in November.
The Red Cross took the rare step of disclosing it had warned Washington repeatedly of shortcomings at Abu Ghraib prison.
Lieutenant Michael Drayton, who led a military police unit at the jail outside Baghdad, told Reuters his company killed at least four Iraqis during chaotic disturbances last winter.
"You got to understand, although it seems harsh, the Iraqis, they only understand force," he said.
Tales of maltreatment in U.S. custody have been commonplace among released detainees. Stewart Vriesinga of Christian Peacemakers, which has documented hundreds of cases, said: "What we're seeing now is probably just the tip of the iceberg."
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=5063441
US forces enter Najaf
Agencies
Thursday May 6, 2004
The US-led administration in Iraq launched a two-pronged assault on Shia fighters holed up in Najaf today by appointing a new city governor and sending in US troops to seize the occupied building housing his offices.
Iraq's US administrator Paul Bremer said the new governor, Adnan al-Zurufi, would take office immediately and receive US funds to recruit, train and equip new police and civil defence forces.
Mr Bremer's announcement came as the US Army's 2nd Armoured Cavalry Regiment drove into the Shia holy city in tanks and armoured fighting vehicles and seized control of the governor's office. The building was taken without a fight, but Reuters reported 41 Iraqi casualties in heavy clashes to the east of the city.
Najaf's local government melted away during the uprising led by Shia militiamen loyal to radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. Most of the city's US-trained police and civil defence forces dissolved as well. The region's previous governor, Haider Mayali, went to Iran on a visit and never returned.
Mr Al-Zurufi, a Shia lawyer who was imprisoned for anti-regime agitation under Saddam Hussein, "is the right man for the job at this time," Mr Bremer said.
US officials were increasingly frustrated by the stalemate with Mr Sadr, he added. The cleric remains holed up with his militia in the centre of the holy city, but is wanted in connection with the murder of a rival cleric last April. He denies involvement in the killing.
"[Moqtada al-Sadr] must face Iraqi justice for the crimes of which has been accused. [He and his followers] operated outside the rule of law by conducting their own courts and prisons," Mr Bremer said. "This must stop. There is no room in the new Iraq for the kind of lawless self-interested behaviour we have seen in the past few weeks." A senior US diplomatic official said the administration in Iraq was eager to disgorge Mr Sadr's Mahdi army - and the Sunni Muslim rebels that still occupy the western city of Falluja - before the June 30 handover a degree of sovereignty to an Iraqi government. The US mandate to mount such actions after the handover is unclear.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, he said US officials have stepped back from their previous demands of capturing or killing al-Sadr. They will now accept Mr Sadr's surrender to Iraqi authorities for trial, the disarmament of his militia and its conversion into a political or social organization.
US officials have created a five-point plan to re-establish the rule of law, revive the economy and oust Mr Sadr's forces.
The plan involves negotiations with Shia leaders to create a united front against Mr Sadr, and the naming of a new police chief, city council and provincial administration to replace the old figures who melted away during Mr Sadr's uprising. It also aims to revive religious tourism in the city. Najaf's shrines and cemetery are major pilgrimage sites for Shia Muslims, tens of thousands of whom visit from Iran.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1211026,00.html
In what seemed a broad move against insurgents across southern Iraq, U.S. tanks moved unopposed into the center of the nearby holy city of Kerbala, destroying offices used by the Mehdi Army militia of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
Reuters correspondents in Najaf saw and heard fierce battles in and around Najaf and the nearby town of Kufa. One saw U.S. tanks at the governor's building on Najaf's main street, several kilometers (miles) from Shi'ite Islam's holiest shrines.
It was the boldest action yet against an insurgency launched a month ago by Sadr. Aged about 30 and with a following among mainly young Shi'ites, the cleric demanded Americans leave Iraq.
But rival Shi'ite leaders have been increasingly critical of his stationing of thousands of fighters in the sacred city. He is wanted over the murder of another cleric in Najaf last year.
In Kerbala, residents saw U.S. tanks blast away Sadr's offices with heavy machinegun fire before taking up positions in the center, about 500 meters (yards) from the main shrines. Italian forces said they fought Mehdi Army fighters south of Nassiriya, another Shi'ite town.
Thousands of U.S.-led troops have been encircling Najaf and have fought Sadr's men elsewhere in recent days in the south, home to the majority Shi'ite population that was oppressed by Saddam Hussein but has grown impatient with U.S. occupation.
On Thursday, Paul Bremer, the U.S. administrator of Iraq, appointed a new governor for Najaf and denounced Sadr.
Plumes of smoke rose from one area as U.S. helicopters swooped low overhead in Najaf. U.S. forces have said they will refrain from entering shrines or offending religious sentiment.
"We have resecured the governor's building and we intend to have the governor reoccupy it to have the coalition retake control of the city," the U.S. official said.
Correspondents said the Mehdi Army militia appeared to be counter attacking the governor's building. Lieutenant Colonel Pat White, a U.S. officer at the scene, told CNN: "We are getting contact from all sides and we are dealing with it now."
"I would liken it to a hornets' nest."
U.S. forces advanced to the east of Najaf across the Euphrates river near Kufa, drawing out fighters and killing 41 of them, the U.S. official said. White said his battalion killed about 20 fighters after they moved out of a mosque at Kufa and fired rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and rifles.
SUICIDE BOMB
Earlier, in Baghdad, a suicide car bomber killed five Iraqis and a U.S. soldier outside the U.S. headquarters in an attack apparently claimed by a Muslim militant with ties to al Qaeda.
U.S. officials said the checkpoint bombing bore the hallmarks of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, an ally of Osama bin Laden who they believe has been operating in Iraq. A claim issued on a Web site purported to come from an organization he leads.
Another group, the hitherto unheard-of Islamic Rage Squadrons, released a video on Arab television showing what it said was a blindfolded American civilian held hostage in Iraq.
Thursday's bomb wounded 23 Iraqis, including three policemen, and two U.S. soldiers at an entrance to the sprawling Green Zone, once Saddam Hussein's main palace compound.
The massive blast rocked central Baghdad 12 hours after President Bush appealed on Arab television for Iraqis to show faith in U.S. democracy and good intentions following revelations of murder and abuse of Iraqi prisoners by Americans.
First reported in January, the scandal blew up last week when photographs were published of soldiers, including a woman, tormenting naked Iraqis. The Washington Post published similar pictures on Thursday. Bush made clear, through aides, that he is unhappy with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld over the affair.
Violence has blighted Iraq since U.S. forces toppled Saddam a year ago, embroiling troops in increasingly bloody guerrilla war and complicating Washington's efforts to install a friendly and stable Iraqi government by a self-imposed June 30 deadline.
U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi arrived in the capital for talks on forming an interim Iraqi government in time for the handover.
The prisoner abuse scandal risks further hampering efforts to foster whatever Iraqi goodwill remains from the ousting of Saddam. Coupled with a rising U.S. death toll, the scandal is not helping Bush explain to Americans the benefits of invading Iraq as he courts votes for re-election in November.
The Red Cross took the rare step of disclosing it had warned Washington repeatedly of shortcomings at Abu Ghraib prison.
Lieutenant Michael Drayton, who led a military police unit at the jail outside Baghdad, told Reuters his company killed at least four Iraqis during chaotic disturbances last winter.
"You got to understand, although it seems harsh, the Iraqis, they only understand force," he said.
Tales of maltreatment in U.S. custody have been commonplace among released detainees. Stewart Vriesinga of Christian Peacemakers, which has documented hundreds of cases, said: "What we're seeing now is probably just the tip of the iceberg."
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=5063441
US forces enter Najaf
Agencies
Thursday May 6, 2004
The US-led administration in Iraq launched a two-pronged assault on Shia fighters holed up in Najaf today by appointing a new city governor and sending in US troops to seize the occupied building housing his offices.
Iraq's US administrator Paul Bremer said the new governor, Adnan al-Zurufi, would take office immediately and receive US funds to recruit, train and equip new police and civil defence forces.
Mr Bremer's announcement came as the US Army's 2nd Armoured Cavalry Regiment drove into the Shia holy city in tanks and armoured fighting vehicles and seized control of the governor's office. The building was taken without a fight, but Reuters reported 41 Iraqi casualties in heavy clashes to the east of the city.
Najaf's local government melted away during the uprising led by Shia militiamen loyal to radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. Most of the city's US-trained police and civil defence forces dissolved as well. The region's previous governor, Haider Mayali, went to Iran on a visit and never returned.
Mr Al-Zurufi, a Shia lawyer who was imprisoned for anti-regime agitation under Saddam Hussein, "is the right man for the job at this time," Mr Bremer said.
US officials were increasingly frustrated by the stalemate with Mr Sadr, he added. The cleric remains holed up with his militia in the centre of the holy city, but is wanted in connection with the murder of a rival cleric last April. He denies involvement in the killing.
"[Moqtada al-Sadr] must face Iraqi justice for the crimes of which has been accused. [He and his followers] operated outside the rule of law by conducting their own courts and prisons," Mr Bremer said. "This must stop. There is no room in the new Iraq for the kind of lawless self-interested behaviour we have seen in the past few weeks." A senior US diplomatic official said the administration in Iraq was eager to disgorge Mr Sadr's Mahdi army - and the Sunni Muslim rebels that still occupy the western city of Falluja - before the June 30 handover a degree of sovereignty to an Iraqi government. The US mandate to mount such actions after the handover is unclear.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, he said US officials have stepped back from their previous demands of capturing or killing al-Sadr. They will now accept Mr Sadr's surrender to Iraqi authorities for trial, the disarmament of his militia and its conversion into a political or social organization.
US officials have created a five-point plan to re-establish the rule of law, revive the economy and oust Mr Sadr's forces.
The plan involves negotiations with Shia leaders to create a united front against Mr Sadr, and the naming of a new police chief, city council and provincial administration to replace the old figures who melted away during Mr Sadr's uprising. It also aims to revive religious tourism in the city. Najaf's shrines and cemetery are major pilgrimage sites for Shia Muslims, tens of thousands of whom visit from Iran.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1211026,00.html
A wounded Iraqi girl is taken by her parents to the hospital in the city of Najaf, May 6, 2004. The U.S. seizure of the governor's mansion and fighting on the edge of the holy city of Najaf does not signify a major new offensive, but adds pressure on radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, a military source said. REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/040506/ids_photos_wl/r3143261735.jpg&e=4&ncid=708
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